IT has become an indispensable part of any company's day-to-day business. And in order to utilize business IT, an office network that operates stably at all times is indispensable. Whether it's a large company or a small business, its importance remains the same.
To build such an office network, network equipment such as switching hubs (switches) and wireless LAN access points (APs) are required. However, these products include "general household" consumer products and "office / store" business products. Looking at EC sites, for example, even if the basic specifications such as "1 Gigabit Ethernet support" and "8 ports" are the same, the price difference is more than 10 times.
In that case, buying cheap consumer products seems much more "profitable". But in reality, many companies nominate and deploy business products. Why on earth? In order to solve that question, we prepared network equipment for business and consumers this time, and conducted tests using actual equipment and comparison of functional differences.
This time, with the cooperation of Daiwabo Information System (DIS), we prepared the actual machines of Cisco Systems' "Catalyst 1000 series switch" and "Catalyst 9105AX series access point" as representative players of network products for business.
Let's compare network equipment for business and consumer with actual equipment
"Price" is not the only focus on office network products
Now, I have the data of the result of "Survey on in-house network equipment" conducted for small and medium-sized enterprises with 300 employees or less. This year, Cisco Systems commissioned an online research company to receive responses from 500 employees of small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan.
According to this survey, "price," "function," and "stability" were selected as the top three in terms of "decisive factors for introducing" the network equipment currently in use and "matters to be emphasized" when introducing new ones in the future. ing. This is a reasonable result, considering that it must be introduced within a limited IT budget, and that it is required to have the functions required for an office network and to be able to use it stably at any time.
Question "Please let us know the deciding factor for the introduction of currently installed network devices (routers, switches, Wi-Fi access points, etc.) (multiple answers, up to 3)"
Question "Please let us know what you want to emphasize when introducing network equipment at your place of employment (multiple answers, any number)"
However, when asked about "problems" with the office network currently in use in another question, the most common answer was "network stability" next to "security measures". In other words, although network equipment is selected with an emphasis on stability, it seems that this is not always possible in the actual office network environment.
As it is called "single emotional system" or "zero emotional system", there are many cases where the IT department / information system staff is insufficient (or there is no dedicated staff) in small and medium-sized enterprises. Even so, the role of the office network is becoming more important, and if the network goes down, the work of the entire office will stop, so if something goes wrong, even if other work is left behind, it must be dealt with with the highest priority. .. The fact that the network is not stable and that troubleshooting is often taken is a huge burden on the person in charge.
Question "Please tell us if you have any problems in the network environment of your current place of employment (multiple answers, any number)"
Unlike features and prices that can be seen in catalogs and quotations, stability is a difficult requirement that can only be understood by introducing it into an actual office environment. If all you need to do is "connect," everyone should choose a cheap consumer product. However, if you always want to be stable and "connect properly", the choice becomes very difficult.
Then, let's verify it with an actual machine test. This time, we prepared products for business and consumer products, configured a network connecting PCs, switches, and APs, and conducted a test to flow traffic that imitated the use cases of office networks. It's a simple test because of time and cost, but you may see the difference.
As mentioned earlier, business products use Cisco Catalyst 1000 switches and Catalyst 9105AX series access points. On the other hand, for consumer products (manufacturer names and model names are hidden here), we have selected "selling" products that were popular on EC sites. Many of these consumer products will be introduced, especially in small offices.
Network switch comparison: Performance was almost the same, but ...?
First, connect 6 PCs with the same specifications and NAS by 1GbE via a switch, and use a batch file to upload / download different large files at the same time on all PCs, or mount as a network disk and 6 disks at the same time. I also ran a benchmark test (diskspd). While reconnecting the cables extending from the PC and NAS to each switch, run the test several times for about 2 to 6 minutes each time.
Network configuration diagram during switch test
The representative of the business switch is Cisco's Catalyst 1000 (16-port model). Originally it is a very multifunctional switch (managed switch), but this time I have not used any special functions. The other consumer switch representative prepared a simple 8-port switch (unmanaged switch). All ports support 1 Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) connection.
We conducted a comparative test between business switches and consumer switches.
Photo during the test. Since 6 PCs flow traffic at the same time, 1 gigabit bandwidth will be shared.
The switch is a relatively simple product, and especially since this test is a small scale with 6 PCs + NAS, I expected that there would be no big difference. Looking at the actual test results, the average values of upload / download seconds, disk access throughput, IOPS (I / O times per second), and latency (delay) were almost the same.
Example of execution result of disk benchmark test (DiskSpd tool) (* Click to enlarge image)
However, as the test was repeated, the traffic on some PCs temporarily became unstable on the consumer switch several times. On the other hand, the Catalyst 1000 did not show such an event.
In the simultaneous download test from NAS to PC, 6 PCs will share 1 gigabit bandwidth. When I open the task manager of the PC and observe the traffic, the bandwidth of the 6 units is not evenly divided, but it is almost constant during execution, and the graph does not fluctuate much. This is normal, but in some tests on the consumer switch side, this bandwidth was not stable and the graph was distorted.
Since the settings of the PC, NAS, and cable have not changed at all, it is presumed that there was something wrong with the switch. However, it is not always reproduced even if the same test is repeatedly executed, and the cause could not be identified in this short-time test.
Normal download traffic (Catalyst 1000). By sharing the 1 Gbps bandwidth among 6 PCs, each PC maintained an almost constant download speed (* Click to enlarge image)
Unstable traffic conditions on consumer switches. The vertical axis display is different from the above graph at 100 Mbps / 54 Mbps, but it can be said that the fluctuation is still quite large (* Click to enlarge the image).
Wireless LAN access point comparison: Down due to a large number of web conference connections
Another wireless LAN AP test showed a clearer difference between business and consumer products.
In this test, we decided to connect the test terminals (6 PCs and 10 iPads) to the wireless LAN AP via Wi-Fi and participate in the Web conference of "Cisco Webex Meetings" to check the quality of the video. A web conference is launched on an external PC (connected to the Internet via another network) that acts as the conference host, and 16 test terminals participate in it. Then, the host PC plays the YouTube video with Webex's multimedia viewer function. There is no problem if the video is played smoothly on each test terminal.
Network configuration diagram during access point test
The wireless LAN AP for business is Cisco's Catalyst 9105AX. The AP series is a low-end compact model that can operate standalone (without an external wireless controller), making it suitable for small offices and telework / work from home. On the other hand, consumer products will have a standard-class Wi-Fi router, with the router function turned off (in access point mode). The recommended number of connections here is said to be 18. The Catalyst is a Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) compatible model, but since the PC and iPad this time are Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) models, it will be a test with a Wi-Fi 5 connection.
First of all, the Catalyst 9105AX, an AP for business, was able to play videos in a stable manner. I wonder if this number of units can afford it.
16 terminals wirelessly connected to the Catalyst 9105AX. The video is playing smoothly (* Click to play the video)
On the other hand, the consumer AP also played the video smoothly at the beginning. However, less than 10 minutes after the start, some devices started displaying an alert saying "Cannot connect to the network", and eventually all devices stopped playing videos.
When I checked the main body of the consumer AP in a hurry, the LED lamp flashed to indicate that it was restarting. In other words, because the capacity limit of the AP was exceeded, a reboot was automatically executed and the Wi-Fi connection was disconnected.
After the AP restarts, the Wi-Fi connection is restored and Webex video playback starts again, but the traffic causes the AP to go down again. In the end, the AP just went down and restarted, and I couldn't continue testing anymore.
As mentioned above, the recommended number of connected APs for consumers was "18", but this is just for the usage scene in ordinary households. In the case of an office network where many terminals are connected at the same time to load, a larger capacity is required. It should be noted that there is such a difference in thinking between business and consumer products.
The consumer AP went down and the wireless connection was cut off. Some devices reconnect and try to play the continuation, but the AP goes down again and it becomes impossible to continue (* Click to play the video)
Catalyst 1000 with rich business / security features
In this test, both the switch and the wireless LAN AP were simply used by simply connecting the terminal. This is because consumer products do not have advanced features.
However, business products are equipped with a wealth of functions for operation management. For example, functions such as VLAN, QoS, LAG (link aggregation), 802.1X authentication, ACL (Access Control List), and multi-SSID are indispensable for the stable operation and security of the network, and are also necessary for small and medium-sized enterprise offices. There are many scenes that become.
In addition to the conventional command line interface (CLI) settings, the Catalyst 1000 switch enables Web GUI-based settings, operation, and management using the Japanese display-compatible management console "Cisco Configuration Professional for Catalyst." There is. Especially in terms of operation management, it is very convenient because you can monitor the real-time operation status at a glance from the dashboard.
It also has abundant security functions. For example, it has 802.1x authentication and ACL functions, which can be used to block unauthorized terminals from connecting to the office network. It also supports "Cisco AutoSecure," which easily enables basic security features (DHCP snooping prevention, Dynamic ARP Inspection, etc.).
It is also compatible with the "Trustworthy solution" that protects the security of the switch itself. This is a mechanism that automatically checks that the switch firmware (OS) and hardware have not been tampered with by an attacker. Now that even small and medium-sized enterprises can be the target of cyber attacks, security functions are built in in advance, and it is nice that security measures can be raised without the administrator being aware of it.
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So far, I think we can see the answer to the question I mentioned at the beginning, "Why do so many companies choose network equipment for business?" Business users select network products not only for superficial prices and specifications, but also for operational stability, reliability, and security.
If the office network suddenly goes down ... Not only will internal operations that utilize SaaS and the cloud stop all at once, but also internal meetings and communication with business partners will be interrupted. In addition to the direct decline in business productivity, the loss of trust as a company will be inevitable. Office network products should be selected from that perspective. I hope this article helps you to do that.
(Provided by Cisco Systems, Verification Cooperation: Daiwabo Information System)
